Keeping / storing lobworms.

[Vagabond]

All good advice

 

Just a word for those with campervans. How to keep worms and maggots alive for a week or more in a campervan in hot weather.

 

Our van has a small fridge/freezer, which is usually chock-a-block with our food, so no room for bait.

 

Bait we keep in an eskie with one freezer block. A second freezer block is in the freezer compartment of the fridge. Swop the two blocks over daily

 

Eskie contains one maggot box and one box of worms - like robtherake, have never had any trouble with ammonia killing the worms - maybe because they get fresh air daily when the freezer blocks are changed.

.

[Phone]

Philo,

 

You can grunt them in the park in the daytime. Just tell folks you learnt to grunt worms by stump fiddlin in Alabama.

 

Phone

[philocalist]

Philo,

 

You can grunt them in the park in the daytime. Just tell folks you learnt to grunt worms by stump fiddlin in Alabama.

 

Phone

 

Even more likely to get me arrested ... 'stump' being a euphamism in many parts of the UK for a certain male appendage!

[Phone]

Philo,

 

Hummm - just tryin' to help.

 

Phone

[robd]

 

I guess, don't knock it till you try it !!

[Phone]

robd,

 

Now you've hurt my feelings. Surely you're not implying you doubted me??

 

Phone

 

Maybe, as Philo suggests, you should change the lingo a bit. Wouldn't want anyone to get in trouble just for fiddlin' your stump.

[robd]

Ahh never, It just hasn't worked for me though, maybe I need to grow a beard.

[Phone]

Philo,

 

Maybe rather than using your stump you would like to know how to "charm" worms?

 

Now in some parts of the USA this is Illegal and in others it is legal.

 

In 2008 researchers from Vanderbilt University claimed that the worms surface because the vibrations are similar to those produced by digging moles, which prey on earthworms. All three, grunting, fiddling and charming do the same thing.

 

Get an old magneto (telephone).

 

Cut the plugs off both ends of a length of electric extension cord

 

Stretch the wire between a short metal rod(s) (2 ft x ¼ in) and the ground that you want to shock for worms.

 

Insert the metal rod into the ground and another identical rod three to four feet away.

 

Strip a bit of wire from both ends of the extension cord and from somewhere in the middle. One wire goes to the magneto and the other wire goes to the negative.

 

Wrap one to one rod and the other to the other rod and secure with electrical tape. (In the old days, I usually wrapped the rods first so I didn’t get them crossed.)

 

Be sure no pets are around and then give the magneto crank a few spins.

 

Sing the 1^st verse of Mary had a little lamb.

 

Check for worms in the circle.

 

Repeat.

 

Works best in damp soil.

 

Know why it’s illegal in some parts of the USA? It works for electro-fishing also.

 

Here in the Midwest I think it's called "charming" because you have to sing Mary had a little lamb. (won't work without the singin').

 

Phone

(you can cut the extension cord in half and have 4 wires if you want)

Edit: For rookies you should use an extension cord with black and white wires. That way it's hard to mess up.

Edited September 2, 2013 by Phone